Types and parts of headphones

Headphones are great to use to listen to music, while watching television or viewing a movie, and when using your personal computer. There are thousands of applications where you can use headphones. There are a lot of brands and types that you can choose from nowadays, depending on the application.

Basically, a headphone has three parts: the driver, the earpiece and the attachment system. The driver is the ‘sound producer’. It is a transducer which converts electrical signal to the audio sound that you hear once you place the headphones on your ears. The earpiece is the physical part which you put to your ears. There are a lot of types of earpiece that you can choose from. Finally, the attachment system is the part which holds everything together. This can either be the headbands - for types which have one - or the wires which hold two ear buds together. The job of the attachment system if to make the earpiece somehow fit your ears.

Headphones can be attached to any music player, to mobile phones or to a personal computer. If you want to get rid of the outside noise and you just want to concentrate on the sound, there are noise-canceling variants that you can choose from. The open-type headphones generally have better sound quality than the noise canceling type.

When it comes to the design of the headphones, then you can choose one that will best suit your application. Clip-on headphones do not have headbands, the earpiece can easily be attached to your ears. There are also wireless headphones that are available. Ear buds are made up of earpieces that can fit the inner part of your ear. Headsets combine the functionality of a microphone and an earphone. Street style headphones are best used for music-listening purposes. Ear pads have two flat pads as earpieces. With all the designs and brands available in the market now, you will surely find the type of headphones that will best suit your need and lifestyle.